Area residents are encouraged to bring expired, unused prescriptions and over-the-counter meds to the Medication Disposal Day on Saturday, April 26, 2014 from 10:00am until 2:00pm at the Marion County Building, 222 West Center Street. Just drive through the rear parking lot where volunteers will offer convenient, legal, and environmentally safe disposal with no questions asked.
Pills, liquids, creams, and syringes are accepted. All containers will be recycled, with your identity protected.
The day is an effort to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs.
“America’s biggest drug problem isn’t on the street, it’s in our medicine cabinets,” said Angela Carbetta of Marion County Recycling and Litter Prevention.
Last October, 324 tons (over 647,000 pounds) of prescription drugs where turned in across the nation at over 4,114 sites operated by the DEA and its thousands of state and local law enforcement partners. When those results are combined with what was collected in its seven previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 3.4 million pounds—more than 1,700 tons—of pills.
Marion area residents turned in 184 pounds of pills and an additional 273 pounds of liquid/cream medications last October. That represented 24% of the 766 pounds of medication collected by the entire METRICH Enforcement Unit.
You can learn more about the previous collection by clicking here.
“This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue,” stated Lt. Chris Adkins of the MARMET Drug Task Force. “Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.”
“Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet,” explained Adkins.
Medication Disposal Day is sponsored by MARMET, ADAMH Board, Marion General Hospital, The Marion Star, Marion County Recycling & Litter Prevention, Aqua Ohio, and Marion County Soil & Water Conservation District.
Call 740-223-4120 for more information.
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